Cape Giant Whiptail Lizard, Aspidoscelis maxima

Cape Giant Whiptail Lizard, Aspidoscelis maxima. Collection made in the Buenos Aires area of Los Barriles, Baja California Sur, December 2019. Length: 30 cm (12 inches). Collection courtesy of Christian Franck, New Westminster, British Columbia. Photograph courtesy of Brad Murakami, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Identification courtesy of Gary Nafis, Californiaherps.com.

The Cape Giant Whiptail Lizard, Aspidoscelis maxima, is the largest member of the Teiidae family of Autarchoglossan Lizards that includes the Racerunners and Whiptails. The Teiidae family consists of one hundred fifty species placed in eighteen genera. There are fifty-one species in the Aspidoscelis genus. The Cape Giant Whiptail Lizard is known in Mexico as  Güicos and in the greater Los Cabos area as Huico de Los Cabos.

Cape Giant Whiptail Lizards have a slim body, long slender tail, thin snout, and large symmetrical head plates. They have a series of dark stripes along the dorsal surface of their back and sides that extend from behind their head to their mid body. The scales on their back are small and granular while the scales on their tail are keeled. They reach a maximum size of 30 cm (12 inches) in total length. They consume other small lizards and various small invertebrates including spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and termites. The Cape Giant Whiptail Lizard is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.

From a conservation perspective, the Cape Giant Whiptail Lizard has not been formally evaluated.